Inertial Fusion Energy is a proposed approach to building a nuclear fusion power plant based on performing inertial confinement fusion at industrial scale. This approach to fusion power is still in a research phase. ICF first developed shortly after the development of the laser in 1960, but was a classified US research program during its earliest years. In 1972, John Nuckolls wrote a paper predicting that compressing a target could create conditions where fusion reactions are chained together, a process known as fusion ignition or a burning plasma. On August 8, 2021, the NIF at Livermore National Laboratory became the first ICF facility in the world to demonstrate this (see plot). This breakthrough drove the US Department of Energy to create an Inertial Fusion Energy program in 2022 with a budget of 3 million dollars in its first year. Design of a IFE power plant This kind of fusion reactor would consist of two parts: Targets which can be small capsules (<7 millimeter diameter) that contain fusion fuel. Although many kinds of targets have been tested including: cylinders, shells coated with nanotubes, solid blocks, hohlraum, glass shells filled with fusion fuel, cryogenically frozen targets, plastic shells, foam shells and materials suspended on spider silk. Drivers which are used to compress and create a shock wave that squeezes the target. This compression wave pushes the material down to the temperature and pressure where fusion occurs. Drivers that have been explored are solid-state lasers, excimer lasers, high velocity solid objects, X-rays, beams of ions (heavy ion fusion (HIF)) and beams of electrons. Net energy in ICF comes from getting fusion reactions to chain together in a process known as ignition. To get there we need to squeeze material to hot and dense conditions for long enough. But a key problem is that after a plasma becomes hot - it becomes hard to compress. The goal then is to avoid getting material hot until after it is compressed. In literature, this is known as the low adiabatic approach to compression. These steps are outlined below: Keeping the plasma very cold, squeeze it together. Heat the plasma only after it is squeezed; ideally inside a “hot spot”. Fusion happens, and the resulting products deposit their energy creating more fusion. Several compression approaches attempt to do this including: Central Hot Spot Ignition, Fast Ignition, Shock Ignition and Magneto-inertial-fusion. ICF Research Institutions This program was originally